(WASHINGTON) — In a private meeting with Donald Trump last week, FBI agents and other law enforcement officials offered the former president new, previously undisclosed details about the 20-year-old Pennsylvania man who came close to assassinating Trump at a rally last month, sources familiar with the meeting told ABC News.
Over more than 90 minutes on Aug. 1, law enforcement officials described shooter Thomas Crooks as a strikingly intelligent man who scored higher than 1500 on his SAT pre-college exam, but who also may have been struggling for years with an undiagnosed disorder, said the sources, who were briefed on the meeting.
Trump was told that, through interviews with Crooks’ family and others who knew him, investigators learned that throughout high school, Crooks would routinely sway back and forth while standing at the bus stop — but that Crooks never received any sort of formal diagnosis related to it, according to the sources.
Sources said the law enforcement officials also told Trump that they are still unable to say exactly what motivated Crooks to target Trump at the July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
In the days and weeks before the attack, Crooks searched online for both Democratic and Republican politicians, and it’s possible he chose to target Trump just because he was the next big name to come through Pennsylvania, Trump was told, according to sources.
Led by a senior agent from the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office, last week’s meeting was scheduled to be what the FBI previously described as a “standard victim interview” of Trump, but much of it ended up being a briefing on the FBI’s investigation, with Trump asking the law enforcement officials more questions than they asked him, according to the sources.
Beyond questions about Crooks and how he made it onto the roof of a nearby building with an AR-15 style rifle, Trump also wanted to know whether authorities had uncovered any foreign connection to the attack.
The FBI agents told Trump that they were able to access three foreign email accounts used by Crooks because his passwords were stored on his computer, but they have found no indications that anyone else was involved in the attack, according to the sources.
The information gleaned from the foreign email accounts largely related to weapons and ammunition purchases, offering little insight into what drove Crooks to launch his attack, Trump was told, according to sources.
At a press conference on Thursday, Trump confirmed that he spoke with the FBI about Crooks, but he offered no further details about the discussion, saying only that the FBI has “done a very good job.”
The FBI previously disclosed that Crooks appeared to have virtually no friends, with a social circle that was limited to his immediately family. To illustrate Crooks’ high level of intelligence, law enforcement officials told Trump that Crooks could name every U.S. president, from George Washington to the present day, sources said.
According to sources, FBI agents also walked Trump through Crooks’ movements on the day of the attack, with the agents telling Trump that — even though the shooter had paid his father $500 to buy the rifle from him months earlier — Crooks still had to obtain the rifle from his father before he made his way to the rally site.
The FBI has not suggested that the father’s apparent sale of the weapon was in any way unlawful.
When Trump asked the law enforcement officials about claims that Crooks was spotted on the nearby building’s roof long before he first opened fire, and other claims that the Secret Service sniper who ultimately killed Crooks waited 10 minutes to take lethal action, the law enforcement officials made clear that such claims were not accurate, the sources said.
The law enforcement officials explained to Trump that — even though law enforcement was made aware of a suspicious person nearby — the first time anyone in law enforcement saw someone on the roof of the building was about three minutes before Crooks opened fire — and the first time any law enforcement saw that the person on the roof had a gun was about 30 seconds before Crooks opened fire, according to the sources.
At that point, a local law enforcement officer had started to climb onto the roof of the building when he encountered Crooks, who pointed his rifle at the officer, prompting the officer to fall to the ground and injure his ankle. The local officer then tried to alert other authorities, Trump was told, according to sources.
Much of that was captured in body-worn camera videos that were released Thursday by the Butler Township Police Department. The videos show officers scrambling around the building as they tried to find a way onto the roof, and the moment that one officer was raised onto the roof, only to then fall down.
“F—ing this close, bro!” the officer can be heard telling other officers after hitting the ground. “Dude, he turned around on me. He’s straight up!”
When, seconds later, a Secret Service sniper heard the gunshots, it took the sniper at most five seconds to locate the shooter on the roof and eliminate him with a single shot, Trump was told by the law enforcement officials, according to sources.
In the videos released Thursday by Butler Township police, an officer can he heard minutes after the shooting saying that he’s “pissed” he and his colleagues “just couldn’t find him” before shots rang out.
During Trump’s meeting with FBI agents last week, the former president praised the Secret Service sniper, saying he “did an amazing job” and “was an unbelievable shot,” sources said.
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office declined to comment to ABC News. A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
ABC News’ Jack Date contributed to this report.
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